All God's Promises at Any Time in History are Conditional
Laval Picard
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God's promises are conditional. They were
conditional to the Jewish nation just as they are to us today. When in A.D.34
the Jewish nation sealed her rejection of God's mercy, God
still had a church. It was composed of the apostles and their converts. These
became the continuation of the Church of Christ. But the Jewish leaders made
every effort to make it appear that the apostles and their converts were a
group of "independent" individuals who thought they could do away
with "organization" and yet the Early Church was organized from the
Head. It was not depending upon man or was not controlled by man. But
according to the leaders of the professed church, they were disorganized and
leading people astray. But that could not have been any further from the
truth. The Early Church was built upon Christ but the leaders of the Jews
pictured them as an off-shoot and as enemies of the church of God. Could
history be repeated in these last days? "The word that Isaiah the son
of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It
shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's
house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall
be exalted above the hills; and the nations shall flow into it. And many
people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His
ways, and we will walk in His paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Isaiah 2:1-3. To the leaders of the Jewish church,
this prophecy distinctly said that right down in the last days Jerusalem
would still be the great centre from which the truth of God would go forth to
the whole world. There might be some dark patches in between just as there
had been in the past, but the Lord would always hold that city for Himself. Now the last days are the very
end, so therefore, here was a clear cut prophecy which stated that right
through to the very end the Jewish Church and organization would stand
as the channel of communication to the world. There it was clearly and
convincingly written! However, how utterly and fatally wrong
time has proved them to be. The argument which they propounded was that the
Jewish organization was going right through to the end as the Church of God
and the channel of His blessing to the world. To certify what they supposed
to be the truth of this argument, they were able to quote many, many powerful
Old Testament promises such as Jeremiah 31:35-37: "Thus saith the Lord, which giveth
the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars
for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; the
Lord of hosts is His name; If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith
the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall depart from being a nation
before Me for ever. Thus saith the Lord; If heaven
above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done,
saith the Lord." Jeremiah 31:35-37. The modern reader of the Spirit of Prophecy who seeks to prove the perpetuity of the church,
could hardly have found a stronger statement than that! Imagine the line of
reasoning the leaders of the Jewish church would have used in their day. They
would ask the question: "Does the sun still shine by day?" "Yes,' the answer had to be. "Does the moon shine by night at
this present time?" (Even after A.D.34) "Yes, it does." "Then is it possible for God to have
cast off Israel for what they have done?" Imagine how convincing this was to those
people back then, but it was only convincing because they did not understand
that first they must carefully identify who Israel was before they applied
the verses. We need to keep this in mind especially
as we are told that "Satan is working that the history of the
Jewish nation my be repeated in the experience of
those who claim to believe the truth." Manuscript 32,
1896. "The remnant church is called to go
through an experience similar to that of the Jews." Selected Messages, Vol.1, p.387. |